The present invention relates to a support apparatus for supporting components of dental material.
Numerous configurations of support apparatus for supporting components of dental material are known. Thus, for example, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,415 to provide a support apparatus for components of a dental material. With this arrangement, a bottle deployed together with a spatula as the application element and a dental material are collectively disposed in a common packaging disposition in the manner of a blister package. Such an arrangement is, indeed, substantially hygienic and readily accessible but is not, however, suitable if, instead of a liquid and a powder-type component, two liquids are to be used.
It is additionally known, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,297, to provide a support apparatus by which a mixing base can be configured in various forms for differing dental components. In this arrangement, the bottles having corresponding liquids such as bond material or other liquids can be disposed in two identical depressions or recesses. Also here, as well, there follows a certain shape identity code—that is, an identification based on corresponding geometries each associated with a respective item intended to indicate an association between the items —in the form of shoulders on the recesses intended to correspond to the bottles which are to be distinguished from one another.
In fact, in the various configurations of the recesses, a certain orientation is made available for the dentist or the dental technician. Also here, however, there exists the danger that the liquids, which should not be put together with one another, may be inadvertently disposed in the wrong recess. The mixing base is, in this instance, unusable, as it cannot be ensured that the remnants of the other liquid are not in the respective recesses.
JP-2000/85860 discloses a multi-faceted arrangement of bottles which can receive the dental materials. Each bottle includes a cap and the caps of the two bottles are differently configured relative to one another in order to make possible a more facile differentiation between the two bottles.
Both bottles are received in a common bottle holder. They are seated in the bottle holder in a disposition sufficiently secure that an application of the respective liquids should be possible without one of the individual bottles falling out of the bottle holder. Special imprint surfaces are provided to offer the possibility of an imprint, by which the respective bottle corresponding to the bottle holder can be identified. Additionally, a cover is provided which commonly covers both bottles.
In this conventional arrangement, it is possible to remove one bottle or, as well, both empty bottles, from the bottle holder and replace the respective bottle(s) with a new bottle or new bottles. In this connection, there exists, to be sure, the danger that the positions of two bottles will be mixed-up, as the two receipt configurations for the bottles exhibit substantially the same dimensions. Continuously present remainders of the dental components, which have linked with the right or the left regions of the cover or, respectively, the bottle holder, can come into contact with the other bottle or with the components stored therein, which can lead to corresponding reactions. It is also not ensured that there is not a mix-up in connection with a mixing operation on the mixing base of the respective liquids.
In connection with the concepts “mixing” and “mixing base”, these concepts are to be understood as referring to the preparation work on a mixing base, by which, as desired (but not obligatorily), a further component can be added to the respective component. The respective components on the mixing base are removed from the respective recess by an application element and applied to the tooth of the patient. In this connection, it is especially important, in connection with, for example, a primer with which a tooth surface is etched in preparation for a restoration thereof, that the primer does not come into contact with a bonding material, whereby such avoidance of contact of the primer and the bonding material makes available the correspondingly expected quality of the restoration result and prevents the continuous occurrence of demands for redress action. Conversely, the bonding material should be kept from contact with the primer to the extent possible, as this will otherwise significantly impair the quality of the restoration result.
On the other hand, it is also important, that the bottles in which the various components are received, are constantly stored in a well closed manner. With the arrangement disclosed in the above-noted Japanese patent publication, the danger exists that the dentist will forget a cap and close the cover such that it cannot be recognized that the respective bottle underneath the cover with the missing cap has not been closed. In the event that such a falsely stored component is, nonetheless, deployed, the quality of the restoration result is, in any event, impaired.